My Word for 2020
Dec 26, 2019
Have you ever chosen a word for the year?
Maybe you have heard friends talk about a word that they have chosen for the year and wondered, “How on earth do you pick one single word, much less set focus on that word FOR AN ENTIRE YEAR??!” Maybe you are a seasoned “Word of the Year” user?
I know I felt the same way all of the years leading up to 2019. I would hear friends and family members proclaim their words on New Year’s Eve via social media. I see clients set up acrylic letters on their desks with words like “intention” or “write” and I always felt a little confused by the words that they chose, and even more confused at how they chose that word all together.
Last year, through the miracles of Instagram, I stumbled upon a goal planner. I say stumbled, but if you know how passionate I am about paper planners you know the truth is that I was most likely looking for something that would fill the need that I had on hand. I had just really started to recover from a full body illness and was at the tail end of a pretty intense detoxification that lifted the brain fog that I had been struggling with over the previous 3 years. It is easy to hide behind an illness when your career is built solely within non disclosure perimeters. Every person that I came in to contact with saw me “at my best,” but even I didn’t know how bad I was struggling till I landed in the hospital. That started a long list of tests that all pointed back to an illness that I had suffered in 2012, after living in production housing on the road, which was infested with mold.
My point? I finally had a clear head, and I desperately wanted to do something with it. My mind was clear, I knew what I wanted, and I also knew that because of this reoccurring illness that time was currently in my hands, but it may not always be that way.
Now, I have always had goals in my life, but I felt like I needed something more. Thanks to the algorithms of Instagram, I had many types of planners that popped into my feed. A few kept popping up time and time again, so I decided to check them all out and give them each a good study. One that looked really pretty and had a great little catch phrase really caught my eye. Wait, they all had good catch phrases hahaha! Sick, brain fog Brandie would have just hastily purchased all 4 of them, looked them over once they were in and probably would have kept 2 (my favorite, and a backup just in case I changed my mind…we’ve all been there before), and gifted the other 2. But I wasn’t sick. I didn’t have brain fog. So I took the appropriate amount of time and just studied. Have you ever been held back by brain fog? Could you be at that place now?
Once I felt I had done enough homework, I landed on PowerSheets by Cultivate What Matters. When I made this purchase, I truly did not know that part of the process was choosing a word for the year. A WORD FOR THE YEAR?? Yes! So you mean to tell me there is an actual process for choosing a Word Of The Year?? So my friends didn’t just pick a word out of thin air? My clients didn’t just buy those acrylic letters because they were cute? Their approach to uncovering your goals and your word of the year mirrored the process that I use with clients to uncovering their true sustainable brand. Just applied to goals… My mind was blown. I was familiar with the uncovering process because I had lived it for 20 years at that point.
Through prep work that was more than just a few open-ended questions, I uncovered that my word for the year for 2019 was “Share.” Quite honestly, this word felt 100% right for me and 100% scared me at the same time. Being painfully extroverted, I have been told to cap off my sharing far too many times in my life. “You are too friendly,” “You are too nice,” “You really shouldn’t share things like that,” Teachers, family members, bosses, friends, mentors, I had gotten so used to clouding out who I really was that I was in physical pain because of it. I was hiding nearly all of myself from my friends and family, let alone the whole world that was out there, that I wanted to live in again. I wanted to Share, because I knew that every time that I did share, I had the possibility of helping someone else. Vulnerability has the beauty of opening up deeper relationships. More thought provoking connection is what I was craving, no more surface level conversation.
By the end of January I knew that I would be first in line to order PowerSheets when they were released for 2020. Intentionally focusing on my word had already changed my outlook on life. Friends and long time clients made comments like that it was good to see that “I was back.” I WAS Back… They had missed me. Holy Cow, Right? I thought that I had just been missing myself all this time?
Where did Sharing take me in 2019? Here are a few highlights.
*Well, for starters, I didn’t have this blog last year. Which also means that I may have never met you. Over one million people have read my blog posts. This number alone shocks me. The 4th blog post I ever wrote, went viral because I decided to share.
*I started taking public speaking engagements again after a nearly 5 year break.
*I started contributing 2-3 times a month on our local style show in Indianapolis with content that supports personal branding for everyone.
*I started #makeuplessmonday after sharing my thoughts after a long bike ride this summer.
*I have helped thousands more through their journey with healing facial relation and body image issues, because I chose to share my own struggle. I would have never had the opportunity to work with beautiful people one on one, but because of sharing, they are healing now too.
*With the help of new and old friends, we created a parody music video that has helped at least 40K people laugh.
*I started sharing my Million Dollar Filter concept on social media through 10/30. You are going to love January! I have loved all of your feedback on how you’d like to see the clothing a little better. Our shoot for January was done in studio with a white background, the images are incredible, and I can not wait to show you!
*I wrote a book. I wrote a whole flipping book. Like 17 chapters of a book. I am excited about this book, and have recently been in conversations with a literary agent. Publishing is a longer process, but I am hoping to share this book with you and your loved ones sometime in 2021.
Quite a bit of me being able to publish this book rides along my email subscription base, so you will see me making a few changes over the next few months to offer our subscribers special bonus content. There are even a few subscribers that will be gifted with personal coaching, in the area that you need it most.
So what is my word for 2020?
Peace
After a huge year of personal growth and seeing that I have the opportunity to help so many of you, I have peace. I am also craving more peace for 2020. Peace for my family, peace for the way my life runs. Do you ever feel like you just need to be still and take in a few deep breaths? But it is more than that…. I feel at Peace every time I can impact a life positively. I love helping others finally feel at peace with who they are. You are more wonderful than you know. I can not wait to set my intentions on Peace for 2020.
How about your journey? Have you chosen a Word for the Year before? How did you uncover that word? Did it help you stay focused? I would love to hear in the comments below!!
If you haven’t checked PowerSheets out yet, and are looking for something more than resolutions for 2020, I would highly recommend them. I am not an affiliate, I just love to *Share* good things when I come across them! Click Here to check them out for yourself
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